Thinkpads Forum

Hey everyone

I decided to upgrade the memory of my system, a Thinkpad SL510 (Windows 7 x64 SP1). Here's the RAM I ordered (on German amazon): 2x 4 GB SAMSUNG Original DDR3-1333 PC3-10600.

Now I realize that the SL510 mainboard only supports RAM up to PC3-8500, but the DDR3-1333/PC3-10600 should work as well since RAM is backward compatible as far as I know.

After I put in the 2x4 GB memory banks, my system got stuck immediately after powering on. No BIOS message or anything, just a black screen. Also, the HDD LED doesn't blink, but on the other hand, there's a soft, regular humming, which implies the HDD might do something after all. Not sure about that though.

Looking at the writing on the memory banks, it seems I got the right RAM: 4GB 1Rx8 PC3-10600S. Only thing that is different from the description is an 'S' at the end of 'PC3-10600S', but that doesn't mean anything I guess.

Took out both memory banks and put them in again, but the problem persists. Unfortunately, I don't have another computer with which I could independently test the banks. So I'm about to send them back, but before doing that, I wanted to ask if anyone has an idea what the problem might be.... First, the RAM I ordered *should* in principle work with my SL510, right? If so, what could be the problem? Just bad luck, and I got two defective banks? Or is there some compatibility problem between Samsung RAM and the SL510 that you aware of? Or is the backward compatibility something that only works in theory, but in practice it doesn't always hold?

Any input would be appreciated!

Did you wear a static free wrist strap? I had once ruin the ram back in the old days. Maybe you just got two bad DDR3, which seems a bit odd. I guess your laptop works still with the old ram. I should upgrade mine after reading this.

Did you try one stick at a time, and did machine fail to boot with either one?

I upgraded RAM as well for my Thinkpad SL510 and works charm. Did you tried put one ram and turn on computer? Maybe one of rams has damage. Try one by one, each ram per slot. I bought rams: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006 ... 00_s00_i00

Hey. Thanks for the responses. I didn't wear a wrist band, but I'm pretty sure I didn't damage them. I also put them in one at a time, together with one of the old sticks that works for sure, but the problem was always the same: black screen immediately after power up.

I sent them back in the end and got different RAM instead, and this one is working. Here are the specs of the RAM that works (and in brackets the RAM that didn't work), just as a "data dump" that maybe helps someone in the future:

System: Thinkpad SL510

successful RAM-upgrade with: Kingston (vs. Samsung); PC3-8500 (vs. PC3-10600); 8 chips per side (vs. 4 chips per side ).